To celebrate the University’s 125th anniversary, the UTC Department of Women’s Studies is sponsoring a series of lectures with the theme women and the University. Titled “Journal of a Georgia Woman,” the first lecture is on Wednesday, September 14 from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. in Grote Hall, Room 131.
All lectures are free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served.
Dr. Kit Rushing, interim head of UTC Department of History, will present his work on the writings of Eliza Frances Andrews. Eliza Frances “Fanny” Andrews (1840-1931) was born into southern aristocracy in Washington, Georgia. The acclaimed author of Journal of a Georgia Girl: 1864-1865, she was an exceptional woman who went on to become a journalist, writer, teacher, and world-renowned botanist.
In 1870, as she was working on her first novel, she embarked on a visit to wealthy “Yankee kin” in Newark, New Jersey. The trip had a profound effect on her life, as she was astonished by the contrasts between North and South. This previously unpublished segment of her writings begins with her New Jersey sojourn and ends with her mother’s death in 1872. It is remarkable for the light it sheds on the social and economic transformations of the Reconstruction era, particularly as they were perceived and experienced by a southern woman.
Rushing is interim head of the History Department and Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. Since the publication of Journal of a Georgia Woman, Rushing has edited and annotated Andrews’ first novel, A Family Secret, and the memoirs of her father, Judge Garnett Andrews, Reminiscences of an Old Georgia Lawyer. Rushing’s most recent publication is with Chattanooga historian Nathaniel Hughes, Refugitta of Richmond, the war-time journal of Constance Carrie Harrison, the wife of President Jefferson Davis’s private secretary.
Future Women’s Studies lectures include:
Tuesday, October 4 at 4 p.m., UC, Lookout Mountain Room
Joanie Sompayrac, Accounting/UHON and Fran Bender, English
Title: Teaching & Learning at UC and UTC
Monday, October 17 at 3 p.m., UC, Ocoee Room
Laura Herron, Athletics
Title: The Modern History of Women’s Athletics at UTC
Friday, November 11 at 2 p.m., UC, Lookout Mountain Room
Cara Vandergriff, Blake Harris, Nora Ketron, Carla Fulgham, and Lauren Shepard
Title: Student and Recent Alumnae Discuss Women’s Studies and Life After College
Wednesday November 16 at 3 p.m., Grote Hall, Room 131
Steve Cox, Library
Title: Emma Bell Miles: Struggles of an Early 20th Century Appalachian Woman
